Surname
by LineSofie
Summary: Cora and Isaac are getting married and he wants her to change her last name. I might add another chapter later on, but for now it is finished as it is.


Hey

This is a little one-shot that I wrote while being sick and I decided to upload it now (I should be doing my English Assignment, but whatever). I hope you like it.

Please review and tell me what you think :)

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**Surname**

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"Sometime I really wish I could get drunk," Cora mutters as she flops down onto the couch with a sigh. Derek raises his eyebrows at her as he looks away from whatever show he is watching; Cora doesn´t ever bother asking.

"What is it this time?" he asks smugly as he grabs another handful of the salty popcorn from the bowl in his lap. He really hopes this conversation doesn´t turn into one revolving around some boy (usually always the same one). He has begged Cora more than once not to talk to him about stuff like that as he really don´t want to know whatever relationship problems his baby sister has with her boyfriend. She never listens though, because, as she will tell him every time with a pout that he has a hard time resisting, she doesn´t have any girl friends to talk to. Yes, Lydia and Kira are still in the pack but Lydia has never made any effort to hide her dislike of Cora, and really, neither has she, and Kira is just too…cheerful; almost as bad as Allison was, but they don´t ever talk about her.

"Isaac-" Cora starts but is cut off when Derek groans loudly. Of course he isn´t lucky enough to have one conversation with his sister that doesn´t involve a certain blue eyed werewolf who always seems a little more on edge around Derek, now that it is known that he is dating his twenty-year old sister – not even after three years.

He turns his attention back to the TV, hoping that he will at least be able to get through the conversation with a simple nod once in a while and agreeing to whatever her opinion is – he´s quickly learned that that is the best solution when living with a woman like Cora – and Laura for that matter, but they never talk about her either.

She chooses to ignore his interruption and continues unfazed.

"-keeps bugging me about changing my last name," she complains. Oh yeah, and his little sister is marrying the guy too. Derek finally turns to her again, deciding that this conversation isn´t one he will easily get out of.

He doesn´t really understand her. Why would she want to stick with the name that has no positive associations to anyone in this town and has caused comments about her being "one of those Hales" and unwanted sympathy from strangers? She has complained about it more times than he can bother to count so he doesn't understand it when she wants to keep it. Plus, isn´t it going to get confusing? Is she going to be Mrs. Hale while her husband is Mr. Lahey? That will probably cause awkward conversations with nosey strangers in the future – for Derek at least. He will still be Mr. Hale and Cora will be Mrs. Hale…

He shakes his head quickly, deciding that he doesn´t care at all anyway. He is about to open his mouth to tell Cora the same thing; that he doesn´t really care – she will still be his annoying little sister whatever surname she has, when there is a knock on the front door. Had they still lived in the loft, whoever was at the door would be standing in their living room by now, unannounced and – at least for Derek – unwanted. For some reason, it seems that nearly every member of the pack is acting more respectful and actually uses the doorbell or knocks. Stiles still seems adamant to get back at both of them for all the unannounced drop-ins they had made through his bedroom window at night, and refuses to do either of the two.

Ruling out Stiles as they visitor, Cora sighs as she gets up from her position on the couch – Derek doesn´t make a move to stand – and walks to the door. He doesn´t turn to see who is there, because a) he doesn´t care, and b) they most likely aren´t there for him anyway. He´ll know anyway soon enough.

"Isaac," Cora exclaims a little surprised. Honestly, she hadn´t expected to see him for at least another couple hours – he always waits for hours after a fight, knowing that she can be a hand grenade just waiting to go off if he approaches her too soon. Sometimes he really hates her temper.

The boy in question is about to greet her with a shy smile when Derek decides that he has had enough.

"Okay, I´m leaving now," he mutters, getting up from the couch, placing the half-full bowl of popcorn on the coffee table. He grabs his leather jacket before shoving past his sister and her fiancé (God, he hates that) to get to his beloved Camaro.

"Don´t do anything I wouldn´t do," she shouts (unnecessarily, but it´s more fun that way, she decides) at him with a grin. He doesn´t even look back at her as he answers with the same raised voice (just to humor her, he tells himself).

"Yeah, that doesn´t say much, Cora."

She shakes her head with a genuine smile on her face as she opens the door wider to let Isaac in. He notes that she at least seems happier and takes it as a sign that she is approachable.

"Do you want anything?" she asks, suddenly feeling like a stranger in front of him. They do this dance every time they fight – they say things they don´t mean in the heat of the anger and doesn´t know how to talk to each other afterwards. They are both severely emotionally stunted from their childhood, or rather, their lack of a childhood at all. Well, okay, no, that´s not entirely fair. Isaac did have a happy childhood with his older brother Camden. The abuse of his father didn´t start before he was about 13 and Camden joined the Army. As for Cora, the happiest she ever was in her life was with her large family before she was eleven.

"No thanks," he replies even though a coke (he knows that they have those stocked in the fridge) sounds pretty good right now. His throat feels sore even though he isn´t entirely sure if that´s possible – being a werewolf and all. He knows it isn´t because he´s thirsty, though. He really needs to tell her what he meant when they were fighting earlier and he doesn´t want to have her screaming at him again (honestly, he´s always scared that she will rip his head off one day).

She looks down at her hands, playing with her manicured nails – Lydia forced her, okay? – and avoids his gaze. It seems they are both waiting for the other to speak first.

"Cora, look…" Isaac starts, moving around the kitchen counter to be closer to her. He grabs her hands (she only allows him to do that when they are alone) and finally she looks at him.

"…about earlier…" he tried but he still wasn´t very sure of his words.

"Why is it so important for you that I take your last name?" she finally asks, fed up with his fumble with words.

He doesn´t want to admit that he always gets taken aback by her bluntness, but even though he doesn´t say it, he is sure that she notices. It doesn´t take more than a flinch that lasts for a millisecond.

"I want people to know that you´re mine," he offers, but he doesn´t know what he set himself up for before he sees the frown on her forehead.

"I´m not just some _thing_ that you can claim to be your own!" she roars and rips her hands from his. Okay, so she is acting a little irrational, so what?

"Cora-" he tries, but honestly, he knows it´s a lost cause. He has a tendency to screw things up a lot, to say the wrong things, and Cora has a tendency to act and speak irrationally and being too stubborn. It´s a wonder that she has agreed to marry him, much less actually lasting three years with him.

"No! I´m not changing my last name, okay?!" she screams at him and moves away from him. She can´t allow him to see the tears in her eyes before she has a chance to blink them away.

He knows that he is playing with fire when he speaks up, but still, he risks it.

"Why are you so adamant against changing your name?" he questions.

He is hesitant to go near her as she grips the back to the couch tighter and he worries for a moment the she is going to destroy it and that he will have to come up with some explanation why Derek needs to go out and get a new one. He knows that Cora won´t offer him one. She will just leave Derek to his imagination which usually involves him sending killer glares in Isaac´s direction as if he had something to do it. Okay, it did look bad that one time when the spring in Cora´s bed broke and she had asked him to replace it while Isaac had blushed (he couldn´t control it, okay?) because of the thought of what Derek must have been imagining. They hadn´t been doing anything (not when it broke, at least) but Derek only protested that he didn´t want to hear it. He had walked away muttering something unintelligible.

When her nails pierce through the fabric of the couch as he places a hand on her back, he almost expects her to turn around and rip them through his skin. He is trying to prepare himself for the oncoming pain when he hears a sob coming from her. Okay, he thinks it´s a sob because he can´t know for sure – Cora has never cried in front of him before (if you don´t count when Boyd died and he doesn´t want to think about that).

He takes a moment to recover and then he reaches forward to gently turn her around. She doesn´t think before leaning into his touch, gripping onto the front of his shirt for dear life. He strokes her back and bends down to kiss her hair (he towers 10 inches over her - a fact Cora usually hates, but now she doesn´t care) as he holds her close. He doesn´t want to let go anytime soon and, while it somehow frightens him, he is glad that Cora feels like she can let her guard down in front of him. This is the most progress they have made in their three-year relationship – okay, probably at the same level as when she first told him she loved him.

He doesn´t want to say anything that could make her pull away from him, but he is curious, too curious probably, to know what made her cry.

"It´s the only thing I have left of my family," she whimpers after a while and he doesn´t have a response to that. What can you say to that? He takes a moment, strokes her hair and kisses her forehead, before pulling back slightly.

"Okay. You don´t have to change it. It doesn´t matter. You´ll be my wife either way," he says and places a hand on either side of her face, gently wiping her tears with his thumbs.

Trying to get a small smile out of her, he continues. "Besides, Cora Lahey does sound kinda lame."

Cora does giggle at his words and looks at him. A smile graces her tear streaked face and he can´t help but think that she looks beautiful like that.

"You´re an idiot," she playfully scolds, punching his arm with little effort. He just grins at her. "…but you´re my idiot," she adds, leaning forward and places a tender kiss on his lips.

When she pulls back, she finds him grinning at her like a fool and she just knows that there´s a stupid joke coming, but she smiles anyway.

"Who´s being possessive now?"


End file.
